Climate Resilience in Engineering Practice: ASCE-NOAA Task Force

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Program Office has forged a formal engagement with the University of Maryland (UMD) Center for Technology and Systems Management (CTSM) to accelerate the development of climate-smart engineering codes and standards.

The task force between ASCE, the world’s largest civil engineering professional society, NOAA, the nation’s largest provider of climate information, and the UMD center with a focus on systems engineering was established to help the nation account for climate change in future infrastructure design and construction.

The ASCE-NOAA Task Force Origins

The ASCE-NOAA Task Force on Climate Resilience in Engineering Practice (ASCE-NOAA Task Force) was established in 2021 to facilitate the climate adaptation of engineering practices and infrastructure. Find out more about the origins of the ASCE-NOAA Task Force, what we hope to achieve, and thoughts for the future.

The vast majority of building codes in the United States and abroad rely on consensus guidance provided by ASCE. With climate change continuing to worsen, ASCE and the NOAA Climate Program Office (CPO) have forged a partnership with the University of Maryland (UMD) Center for Technology and Systems Management (CTSM) to help the nation account for climate change in future infrastructure design and construction to accelerate the development of climate-smart engineering codes and standards.

As the working body responsible for executing the actions identified in the cooperative agreement, the Task Force should serve as both an information exchange and as an organizing committee. The main functions of the task force include:
- Promoting an understanding of the needs of the the civil engineering community, especially with regard to weather and climate information in support of the establishment and application of codes and standards
- Providing clear identification and description of specific capabilities within NOAA or NIST that may be relevant to the establishment of ASCE codes and standards that take into account a changing climate
- Promoting an unified approach by communicating these needs and capabilities across the broad landscape of NOAA and NIST programs
- Promoting unified approaches across ASCE to understanding future changes in weather and climate extremes as appropriate
- Identifying milestones for the project and communicating progress and accomplishments.
- Leveraging Earth System Science and Modeling to Inform Civil Engineering
- Workshop I: Temperature and Rainfall, September 9 and 23, 2022. For more information on these, email [email protected] and you can have access to the Collaborate site where all the materials are housed.
- Workshop II: Extreme Winds and Coastal Hazards, October 21 and 28, 2022.
- ASCE-NOAA Leadership Summit on Climate-Ready Infrastructure, February 2, 2023
- EWRI World Environmental & Water Resources Congress, May 2023.
- Jainey Bavishi, Deputy NOAA Administrator, Building a Climate Ready Nation
- ASCE INSPIRE November 16-18, 2023

Additional Resources

The ASCE-NOAA Task Force released the ASCE-NOAA 2022 Workshop Report, which summarizes the discussions between civil engineers and climate scientists on how to best integrate nonstationarity with extreme temperature, intense rainfall, straight-line wind, and coastal hazards into civil engineering planning. The Task Force plans to develop additional documents based on the ongoing discussions and interactions among ASCE, NOAA, and as appropriate other agencies to meet the ASCE-NOAA Memorandum of Understanding commitments.

ASCE Webinar Series

Related PDH Opportunities

Part 1

Leveraging Earth System Science and Modeling to inform Civil Engineering Design Part I: Extreme Temperature and Intense Rainfall

Part 2

Leveraging Earth System Science and Modeling to inform Civil Engineering Design Part 2: Coastal Flood Hazards and Straight-line Winds

Part 3

The Emerging Partnership Between ASCE and NOAA and its Implications for Addressing Nonstationarity in Weather and Climate Extreme in Civil Engineering Practice

ASCE Standards 7 and 24

A focus of this partnership is on prioritizing and producing data. ASCE Standards go through the most thorough vetting process of any ASCE publications and we strive to make them as useful and long-lasting for civil engineers, and those in similar professions, as possible.